(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
about the mistresses of the wealthy and civil servants. … The cruelty of
Dwelling Narrowness lies in the depiction of a good urban youth (what people
call ‘economical-practical man’ on the Internet) being defeated by a man with
wealth and power. … This kind of plunder of sexual resource will not only
cause the depletion of social morality and justice, but also lead to imbalance of
sexual flows and distribution… This is no longer an issue of morality but
concerns social stability. Chinese ‘middle class’ has already slipped toward
the lower class in face the skyrocketing real-estate prices and medical
expenses. Now this group has to suffer the consequence of sexual resources
being plundered and dominated [by the wealthy and powerful]. Where is
justice?!
This blog entry has been widely circulated and debated on Chinese Internet. The TV
drama has continued to engage Chinese online discussion on the topic of mortgage
slaves, one of the “unharmonious” problems in a “harmonious” society. Some express
their feelings in cartoons (e.g. Guo Xizhong’s “mortgage slave series” at
cartoon.chinadaily.com.cn/onlineartist.shtml?do=cartoons&uid=21032&page=2);
some through music videos, such as the MV by China’s pop singer Huang Zheng
entitled “Sell.” The MV, posted on the Internet in June 2010, mocks the sky-high real
estate prices in China. It had over 1.3 million views with a week. Chinese netizens
call it “the most desperate MV in history.” It depicts the increasing class disparity in
China through different (dramatic) reactions with people of different social classes
toward a home that costs RMB28800 (USD4303) per square meter. What (or how
long) does it take to buy a home? It ranges from 5 days (for a big boss) to 541 years
(for a construction migrant worker). This is the bitter truth that would make (most)
people feel hopeless. This feeling of hopelessness and its artistic candid expressions
through cartoons, MV and TV drama draws inspiration from China’s socialist legacy
and communist concepts of equality and equity. On the one hand, the TV drama
articulates China’s socialist pretensions; on the other hand, such pretensions can also
be used as a powerful subversive tool against the party-state led capitalist
developments. The tactics that are used in the moral-economy claims via BBS
posting, blogging, cartoons, and MV are both new (in terms of platforms and
techniques) and old (in terms of rhetoric and underlining ideology). The spectre of
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